I'll Tell Where You Belong
by SlightlyFrumiousBandersnatch
Summary: Various students interact with the Sorting Hat.  Oneshot series, written according to no particular pattern.  So far: Neville and Percy.
1. Neville

**Disclaimer: All characters and objects belong to J. K. Rowling. I am not attempting to use them for profit.**

**This idea has been kicking around in my head for ages. Neville really is a true Gryffindor, as evidenced by the Hat's reaction to him in Book 7. So, why did the hat take 'a full minute' to decide where to put him? Well, it didn't...**

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"Hmmmm…" said the little voice in his ear, "Honest, loyal…good mind, but you don't rely on it enough to be a Ravenclaw…very little ambition…courage? Oh, dear me yes, you have courage. It'll be Gryffindor, then."

_No, I'm not, _thought Neville Longbottom, _I'm useless and stupid. Everyone says so. Just make me a Hufflepuff._

"My dear boy," said the voice, "If you were useless, you wouldn't belong in Hufflepuff. As it happens, you would do better in Gryffindor, but Hufflepuff, I'll have you know, is not as useless as everyone seems to think."

_I'm not a Gryffindor,_ thought Neville, _Gryffindors are the brave, talented ones. Gran always says I'm not half the wizard my father was._

"That, my boy," said the Hat, "Is because your father was a grown man when you were born. As a boy, he was not so very different from you."

_That's not true! My father was brave, and Gran says I'm useless! He wasn't useless! He wasn't!_

"Neither are you, boy, no matter how intent you are on denying it."

_But I am!_

"I've sorted a hundred thousand students in my day, child," said the Hat, "I've never been wrong. A few times, students have chosen their own way and gone wrong, but I have always seen truth."

_You're wrong!_

"Trust me," said the Hat soothingly, "I know my business. You don't know yourself after eleven years as well as I know you from thirty seconds. I know where you belong, and it's not where you think."

Neville could hear the buzz of conversation starting up in the hall as the upperclassmen grew bored with the speed at which events were developing.

_Please, just sort me, _he thought, _Stop making fun of me and let me go. You know where I actually go, so stop making stupid jokes and put me there._

"All right, then," said the hat. There was a long pause as the hat shifted and seemed to consider.

"No," said the hat, finally, "You gave me the choice, and I'll stand by it. GRYFFINDOR!"

Neville jumped off and started to run with the hat still on. As he ran back, flushing a crimson the shade of his new house's banner, he just heard the hat say, "You'll thank me in time, lad."

He did. Eventually.


	2. Percy

"Another Weasley?" said the voice, "Some things never change."

Pride filled his chest at the idea of his family, stretching through history, _I'm just like them, too._

"I'm afraid not, lad," said the Hat, sounding amused, "You are the first deviation from a pattern set by centuries. You should be proud."

_I'm a Weasley,_ thought Percy, _We're all brave as lions. Mum says that's why we're all in Gryffindor._

"Yes, well," said the Hat, "You're more…cunning."

_A Ravenclaw? _thought Percy desperately, _You said something about brains in the song, didn't you?_

"Ravens aren't cunning, dear boy," said the Hat kindly, "Snakes are cunning. You have ambition coming out your ears. I can tell, as I'm wrapped around them at the moment."

_I have to be brave,_ thought Percy. _Weasleys are always brave. It's traditional._

"You're a Slytherin, boy," said the Hat, "No denying it. You'd do all right in Ravenclaw, but…Slytherin for you."

_NO. I have to be a Gryffindor. It wouldn't look right, otherwise._

"You can still be a brave Slytherin, you know," said the Hat consolingly, "They don't make you sign an oath of cowardice when you join. You just don't have to be stupid about it. Stupidity is a weakness of Gryffindors, in my opinion."

_They'll be mean. Weasleys are blood traitors, everyone knows that. And my brothers will never forgive me._

"I thought you were brave," said the hat, with a tinge of irony around the edges of its voice.

_I don't have to be brave if I'm in Slytherin. It's a paradox. You have to put me in Gryffindor to get an option where it makes sense._

"Would Ravenclaw be all right? With a mind like that…"

_Gryffindor. _He was thinking more sharply now, and he could hear it growing more uncertain as he gained surety.

"All right," said the Hat, "I wash my hands of you. Don't expect it to be easy. GRYFFINDOR!"

It wasn't easy, and he always wondered; _would I have done well in Slytherin_? He never got an answer.


End file.
